Fiction: Group 2
New Tales of the Pearl River Delta
SKH Chu Oi Primary School, Lo, Ariel - 12, Fiction: Group 2
ello everybody, I am Ariel and I’m ten years old. I lived in a big boat on the Pearl River. I was
born in a family that had been fishermen for many years. Although my family was not very rich, I
was happy and had nothing to worry about. My mom and dad worked in a clothes factory which
was on land and they were the first ones who had a job other than being fishermen. They hadn’t come back
for a long time so I missed them very much. I lived with my old grandpa and my brother Jerry. My grandpa
was a fisherman and he was very strong although he was already seventy-six years old. He liked to tell me
his amazing stories of when he was young. My brother was twenty years old and he was studying in the
university on land. He was clever and always got high marks in exams and tests.
I had three best friends and they lived in the ocean. They were mermaids! There was a pink dolphin
named Jess and two other beautiful mermaids called Sandra and Cherry. The mermaids were the princess of
the Mermaid Kingdom. Jess was friendly and it knew human language. Sandra had long dark hair and she
was smart. She had a magical bluish green tail. Cherry had a ponytail and she was good at cooking. She had
a purple tail. Every day after I came back from school, I would jump into the ocean and play with them.
Once, Sandra gave me a pearl and she asked me to swallow it. I was able to breathe and speak in the ocean
and I wouldn’t get wet! The special power made me very excited. My parents knew my ocean friends too.
One time, my parents came back for a holiday and I introduced my mermaid friends to them because they
were curious. After they talked to my friends for a while, my parents realized that I made some good friends
and they encouraged me to play more with them. They were kind and they decided not to tell anybody that
mermaids really existed. I love my friends so much and I was glad.
One day, my ocean friends were not very happy when I met them. “We are going to move soon,”
said Jess. I was shocked and wanted to figure out the reason. Cherry explained, “Our home was damaged by
pollution. There is rubbish everywhere! The people threw rubbish into the ocean because they were too
lazy to throw it in the rubbish bin. The trash floated to our home and now our home is smelly and dirty.
See this picture. Can you imagine my bedroom filled with floating rubbish everywhere? It covers all the
smell of my perfumes and my bedroom is becoming incredibly smelly!”
I wanted my friends to stay but I didn’t know what to do! I kept crying and couldn’t sleep all night.
Then, my grandpa told me an idea. He said gently, ‘We can ask your friends how to become mermaids and
mermen! Once we become mermaids and mermen, we can move away with them!” I agreed and told my
friends about grandpa’s idea.
In the end, we drank a kind of potion that my friends gave us. It had many special ingredients. It was
bluish-green colour but the potion tasted horrible. My brother, grandfather and I became mermaids and
mermen after we drank the potion. I asked my ocean friends, “What about Mom and Dad? What can they
do after we became mermaids?” I began to worry suddenly. “It is okay. I have already told your Mom and
Dad about what happened between us. They have drunk the potion and swam to the new kingdom
already.” said Sandra calmly.
‘Thank you! I am so pleased to have friends like you guys.” Once I went back home to my parents, I
hugged them warmly. We were all joyful.
‘There is one thing that you need to be careful of. There are fishermen that try to catch us and sell us
to make money. Some of them believe that after they eat mermaid’s meat, they can live forever so they will
chop us into pieces and cook us. One of my friends had been caught by fishermen before and she died. We
were so angry and frightened but we had no idea what to do so we can only be cautious,’ said Cherry
seriously. We all nodded.
H
